1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to performing a process by linking a plurality of pages defined in a mark-up language that are executable by a browser, wherein the process implements operations via dynamically linked operational objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mark-up languages, such as hypertext mark-up language (HTML), provide a useful environment for the establishment of sophisticated graphical displays and, as such, are very suitable for inviting input responses from users via a graphical user interface. In addition to displaying graphical entities, it is also possible to embed executable scripts within HTML pages that in turn may include controls for calling dynamically linked objects.
A problem with embedding objects of this type within HTML pages is that active X controls are often relatively large and thereby significantly increase the operational time required for an HTML page to be loaded from storage or to be received via a network or an Internetwork connection. Although this may be acceptable in many environments, there are many other environments, particularly those of a commercial nature, where it is highly undesirable for the time taken for a page to be created to be any larger than necessary.
A further problem exists in that controls are destroyed when a page as a whole is destroyed, usually to enable a new page to be created.
A further problem exists with embedded controls in that the nature of the control itself is readily accessible when contained within an HTML page and under some environments this may be considered undesirable.
A process defined by a plurality of linked HTML pages is illustrated in Figure A. In this example, three HTML pages A1, A2 and A3 are shown although the system could include considerably more. These HTML pages may be read from local storage, received via a network or received via an online connection to an Internet or a dedicated link to a remote host computer. Each is capable of generating graphical information, illustrated by the left region of each page. In addition, each page may contain an embedded script, executable by a browser, illustrated by the right portion of each page. This script may include Active X controls or similar, such as control A4. During the execution of page A1, by browser A5, control A4 is executed, resulting in an instance of a library object being created, as illustrated by arrow A6. The instantiated object will perform a called function and will then return an event, illustrated by arrow A7.
Process flow is achieved by HTML pages, such as page A1, having links to other pages, such as A2, as illustrated by arrow A8. Under the environment shown in Figure A, it is possible for page A1 to call a function and then continue to execute instructions, or respond to user input, before event A7 is received. Part of this subsequent processing may involve the execution of link A8 under the control of the browser A5. Under these circumstances, browser A5 will close object A1 and instantiate HTML page A2. If the event A7 now returns, it has nowhere to return to and is thereby effectively lost.
Browser control B5 provides functionality of a conventional browser but in an embedded form. Consequently, a program is required in order to control the browser control and this is achieved by the establishment of a browser container A9. In addition to controlling browser control A5, container A9 is also tasked with ensuring that reliable operation of the browser control is maintained and, where necessary, reloading the browser control so as to restart the operation. In this way, the overall application is maintained and it is not necessary to rely upon the default crisis management provisions of the operating system, or on manual intervention from a user.
The instantiation of an HTML page into system memory takes a longer period of time when an HTML page contains many Active X controls, such as control A4. It would therefore be desirable to initialize these strongly typed controls during an initialization procedure, prior to the loading and processing of the HTML page. However, a problem exists in that a returning event, such as event A7, must be returned to the originating page in order for the original calling process to be satisfied.
Under the environment shown in Figure A, a systems developer may be under some pressure to reduce the number of Active X controls embedded within HTML pages in order to ensure that the time taken to load a page is not excessive. Furthermore, a developer may also be placed under further constraints so as to minimize the chance of an event being returned to an HTML page after that HTML page has been closed down and a new page has been established. It may also be desirable to reduce the amount of script contained on HTML pages so as to make it less accessible to third parties.